


The Ringing in Your Ears

by AmethystLuna



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Body Horror, Brainwashing, Character Death, Creepy, Eye Horror, M/M, Psychological Manipulation, Surreal imagery, Warning for:
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-29 02:48:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6355852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmethystLuna/pseuds/AmethystLuna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU in which Xephos is the void bound to human form by Ridgedog, and Parvis, having absorbed some void during an unplanned trip between dimensions, becomes beholden to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ringing in Your Ears

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The call of the void](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2741696) by [metalmeisje](https://archiveofourown.org/users/metalmeisje/pseuds/metalmeisje). 



> [A/N: While I continue to work on the history of how my take on Parvis ended up defined as “a bunch of fucked up things in a Parv suit”, here’s a tale of one path he could have taken inspired by an old rp with metalmeisje | Background music: Surrender by The Birthday Massacre; When The Mirror Cracks by Xandria ]

**The Ringing in Your Ears**

There was, perhaps, a tickle of sensation. Something he couldn’t put his finger on. It was like so many other little nudges and whispers that prodded his brain throughout the day and slunk through his dreams at night. It glided upon the edges of the one nightmare that came back time and again.

That nightmare, and the incident which fueled the nightmare, was what had let it in to begin with.

No one was supposed to slip in between the veil of worlds without some form of shielding. The one who threw him into the void didn’t know that; all he knew was that he was angry and wanted his argumentative bandmate out of his face.

And so Parvis fell, cloaked in terror and a nothingness that seeped into his skin and found a place for itself nestled deep inside. Even when he dropped out into a new world, the void hung on and went with him, slumbering in its little home. It remained dormant for a time, later travelling along with him to yet another world.

There it was awakened by the unexpected presence of another like it, someone else harboring voidstuff within them but on a much larger scale. Big enough to fill an entire humanoid. No, bigger – there was so much of the void purposefully _crammed into_ this one and the piece within Parvis grew agitated, trying to call out to that amassed form.

One day Parv abruptly ran into Xephos and couldn’t figure out why the taller man was staring at him with such open intensity.

~*~

At first the questions seemed concerned. “How are you feeling today, Parvis?”, “Have you noticed anything strange, Parvis?”, and “Parvis, tell me again about how you got to Chaosville.”

A few weeks later Xephos showed up at the castle uninvited (Parv didn’t even know how he found out where he lived) and was upset about _something_ but he wasn’t explaining it in any kind of detail. Something about Ridgedog? Parvis had no idea if he was supposed to remember an altercation and was absolutely clueless as to why Xephos would come to _him_ of all people to rant about it. Maybe the other man figured he was a neutral party? Parv tried to go through the motions of agreeing, offering comparisons of something bossy Strife had said, but was still baffled.

The visits became more frequent. Parv found himself beginning to feel sympathetic – and still had no idea why. Xephos, and Ridge, both should have just been more casualties on his own list of world conquering. Instead he was sitting down, offering Xeph some food or a drink and listening rather obediently as the other man spoke.

He was beginning to find his arguments against Ridgedog to be very convincing.

He was beginning to nod more often, offering suggestions and ideas in a meek way, wanting to be helpful.

He was beginning to succumb to the small lost part of void inside him that was feeding off of the tidbits of nothingness that Xephos was sending its way under the metaphorical table. It was crying out to him underneath every sentence Parvis uttered, longing to be a part of the whole once again and begging Xephos for help.

Parv was still deaf and blind to what was living within him, a fact that partially exasperated Xephos but was still something he could work with. Over time he could tune Parv’s hearing and remove the blindfold. He had the time, and he was _very_ patient.

~*~

Early one morning Xephos arrived to find Parv curled up in a corner, shuddering and weeping. He looked up immediately when Xephos entered the room and his eyes were the hollow darkness of nothing, his tears trailing the minute remnants of old stars down his face. The taller man smiled gently down at him, then crouched and wrapped his long arms around him. He said nothing, wanting to savor how the void was finally leaking out. He stroked his hand over Parv’s hair in a parody of comfort, feeling with every passing second the potential for the wretched man to become even more malleable.

Finally, Parvis whimpered out, “Wh-What’s happening to me?”

Xephos was pleased that he hadn’t gone to _Strife_ with the question. “I think I know. Don’t worry. I can help you.” He released him, hands settling onto his shoulders to hold Parv at a short distance. He had to temper his smile at the appearance of those watery, inhuman eyes and he moved a hand to wipe away the streaks of translucent darkness – a substance that was swiftly absorbed by his own skin. Parv clutched at Xephos’ fingers like a lifeline. The spaceman patted his shoulder in response. “Easy now. Come with me, I’ve had suspicions and I can explain everything. We just need to go somewhere a little more… private.” He used the blood mage’s grip on his hand to pull Parvis to his feet, gently freeing himself so he could take a book from his satchel.

As soon as physical contact was lost Parvis hunched over again and clutched at his ears as if to shut out some loud noise. It would do him no good, Xeph thought with a frown. You can’t block a source inside your own head. The struggling voidling was becoming restless after being so close to rejoining a whole – so suppressed that it didn’t realize Xephos himself was still only a piece, albeit a possible gate to the whole. He paused to wonder if that had been part of Ridge’s goal, to wrest the extra-spatial material into a containable form that he in turn could manipulate.

Demigods and their hubris. If Ridge had never gotten so high up on his horse he might have continued to keep the secret. He thought that nothing could topple him.

It was by some twisted fortune that he didn’t know about Parvis’ little issue, and that may just be the clue Xephos needed that Ridgedog did not know as much about controlling the void as he thought he did. As it was, Xephos himself didn’t know how Parvis had held together this long on his own.

Didn’t know _yet_. He would investigate the blood mage in his own way. First they had to get away from where Ridge’s spying ears might hear them. With a pained cry rising in Parv’s throat, Xephos opened the book to a page with a strangely glowing rectangular image. He silently read the words below the picture, focused on the location in his mind, and wrapped his free arm around Parvis. He stepped forward –

The screech that Parvis heard filled his own head but he was able to filter it somewhat, and as they stepped down into a soft layer of snow all noise quieted. It wasn’t simply because he was touching the afflicted man again, it was this place, an abandoned world of the past, stuck between the folds of the universe and brushing up against the void, easing the ache within both of them. The sky was broken-wrong-missing, and the land held the silence of a frozen apocalypse, but it was _safe._ Parv had dropped to his knees the moment after they entered although now he lowered his hands, freed from the aberrant screaming. He glanced around, bewildered; the void retreated from his sclera to occupy only his pupils. Xephos nodded in approval then held out a hand to help him up once again. “Come on, let’s get inside.”

“Wh-Where..?”

“That way.” The spaceman pointed with the spine of the book. A cylindrical shape loomed across a small but rocky plain. Xephos tugged Parvis along, navigating the terrain with little problem while the mage stumbled a few times over buried rocks and assorted bumps beneath the snow. Xephos didn’t let him fall, maintaining his grip and hauling Parv upright again when needed. The shorter man was obviously still dazed. That was fine.

The building they eventually reached could have been mistaken for a missile silo caked in snow were it not for some garish paint choices showing through that made it look like, of all things, a giant can of baked beans. Xephos smiled with some fondness at the memory even though it brought the pain of knowing so many other memories were false creations. He shook _that_ thought away and ushered Parvis inside. The cold hadn’t yet started biting through his coat but the blood mage only had his t-shirt. Everything inside the building had a fair coating of dust on it and there was snow in one corner where part of the ceiling had collapsed. Xephos set about patching it up after getting a fire going in one of the furnaces. He let Parv stare and wander as he wanted – after a hasty warning about the open tinker’s smeltery. It wasn’t running but it was still a hazard. The spaceman found some usable iron fencing while glancing through chests and blocked the thing off as a precaution.

He briefly entertained the thought of Parvis falling in and being dissolved into neatly  measured layers of blood, flesh, and void. Well, that was always an option to experiment with. But that would be for much later, if his other ideas didn’t work first.  He took out a kettle and put it on the furnace to boil.  Several of the supplies he had previously stashed there were still good, including the tea.

Parvis did not explore very far. He mainly stood by the innermost wall, away from the door and the ceiling breach, rubbing his arms and looking like a lost puppy. He seemed so pathetic that Xephos began to feel bad for him. He hadn’t asked for this life with the void anymore than Xephos had. The taller man gingerly took two mugs out of the nearby cupboard, keeping any rattling to a minimum, and set the tea to steep. He glanced toward the blood mage every so often. When he turned to start dusting off a table with a scrap of cloth he’d taken out with the kettle, he found Parvis hurrying over to take it from him. “I’ll— I can get that, let me help.”

“By all means.” Xephos stepped back, intrigued by the sudden energy and folding his arms in amusement. He’d seen the state of Parv’s castle. Housekeeping clearly wasn’t his strong suit. Yet here he was being rather thorough about wiping off the dust, even inspecting the chairs and making sure the rungs of the backing were clean. Xephos left him at it to turn back and fill the mugs, fairly content when their warmth spread to his own hands.

He, too, was glad for the peace of mind this place gave him. It was his secret alone – well, now shared with Parvis, but only Xephos had the key to enter. Depending on how the next few days went maybe he would make a copy of the book for the mage.

He set the mugs down on the now spotless table, waving Parvis to the opposite chair. The mage clung to the cup with both hands to warm them and talked about his nightmares and the feelings that had driven him into the state Xephos had found him in. The spaceman offered murmurs of encouragement and reached out a few times to place a reassuring hand over Parv’s fingers. Before the tea completely cooled Parv’s head began to droop, the insulated quiet of their surrounding world lulling him to a new calm. Xephos removed the mug from his hands and nudged him awake. “There is a more comfortable place to sleep than the table. Come on, you can make it that far.” He took Parvis by the arm, ~~making him~~ helping him stand, then led him down a mismatched staircase to a sheltered area across from the smeltery that had three tiny divisions in it, just enough room to contain one bed each. He guided Parv into the furthermost nook. Parvis nodded absently and fell onto the bed, wrapping his arms around the pillow while Xephos pulled the blanket over him.

“This is a nice place,” Parvis mumbled, eyelids drooping again. “It’s quiet…I like this…quiet…”

Xephos smirked lightly. He watched and waited for several minutes until he was sure Parvis was completely asleep, then he took out the book and left. He needed to get some more supplies and the shorter man was safely hidden away. He wouldn’t be going anywhere when he woke up, either.

~*~

However, Xephos was not surprised by the response he received when he returned. Parvis was awake, and was crying again, and practically pounced on him the second he walked in the door – knocking off the collected snow from his head and shoulders that he would have been brushing off himself, were it not for several dozen kilograms of blood mage clinging to him. “Don’t leave like that again, please! I thought I was only dreaming, I felt so – _alone!”_

Xephos patted Parv’s back, then gently pried the mage’s arms away from him. He looked into the other man’s eyes and addressed the void.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to wake you. You needed that sleep, Parvis, you’ve been tired for a _very_ long time. Isn’t that right?”

Parv stared back at him with a bleak expression, the suffocating stars in his pupils becoming dull. “You-You’re right, I’m sorry. I – I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“It’s fine.” Xephos patted him once again. Each brief millisecond of contact made the void brush up against his palm like an affectionate cat. He pointed Parvis back toward the beds. “It’s all right now, let’s rest some more. I’m pretty tired from my trip, I had a lot of work to do very quickly, so I could do with a lie down myself.” He settled the mage back in his appointed nook, giving a few more soft reassurances while on the way over to one of the other beds. The spaceman settled in, content in himself with the security and peace. Everything was going very well. He could relax, let his guard down, and dream.

Naturally, he dreamt of stars and the vast nothingness between them. He was a form moving within it, body and limbs made of infinite darkness, stretching away into forever and moving with a ponderous slowness yet somehow it was apparent he was moving toward something. A trail of fragmented stars led him to another form, this one made of wispy shadows and paleness that curled in on itself. After an eon his hands grew close enough to cradle it within his palms. It uncoiled and reached out to him, revealing missing fingers and and holes riddling its body. Its eyes were huge and bright, looking for _something_ within the hollow expanse of his own – or rather, the lack thereof, of his own eyes.

The bed creaked. A weight nestled its way up against him. A meek voice whimpered, “I’m cold…I like the quiet, but I’m still so _cold…”_ Xephos hushed him, wrapped his arms around the mage and returned to sleep.

~*~

He had been on the right track with the smeltery but had needed one element more: the blood altar in Parv’s base. With all of the life essence and energy from the blood mage that it had stored away, cycled through, and drank in again, it would serve as an excellent conduit for reshaping the man the way Xephos saw fit. By that point Parvis was willing to agree to anything to help Xephos and didn’t once question why Xeph would ask him to sleep right on the floor beside the altar. Xephos had worked hard to keep the void quiet so Parv could be comfortable back in the castle at all.

The mage slept unaware as Xephos carefully traced invisible lines of voidstuff around the room, accessing tiny ports to _nowhere_ and utilizing the strained energy of aging stars. It was a complex web anchored to the hunger of the blood altar. He did his best to keep that in check, although the strands nearest the stones began to soak through with dripping red. But such was the nature of this ritual and he let it be. It was Parv’s old blood, after all, resurging through.

He plucked the first string to set things in motion. There was only a split second of time for Parvis to wake before he came apart at the seams, the pent up nothingness flowing forth with a horrifying silence while flesh and blood were shed in its wake, bones bristling at all angles and only parts of Parvis remained as they were – enough of his face to stare at Xephos pleadingly, his limbs twisting but still there – enough of a shape for Xephos to work with when it was time to put him back together. As it was, his fingers worked the air, pulling other strings and molding the released void into the connections he needed, strengthening the bond with himself and communicating all of his will to the part still lingering inside what was left of the blood mage. He then began to reshape the pliable flesh back into a Parvis-like form, invisible tools dancing to his commands. All the while Parv stared up at him, reclined head bobbing from rasping inhales that tried to reach lungs that didn’t exist yet while dangling detached arms twitched.

The resulting being looked like a Parvis and sounded like a Parvis, right down to his baffled expression and series of inane questions asking when had they come back to the castle and why was he laying on the floor and why was Xephos smiling like that, had he missed a joke, tell me the joke, Xephos, please, I want to know what’s so funny!

~*~

“X-Xephos, please--! He-He’s found me!” The voice gasped through the communicator, a testament to how desperately he must have been running.  The cold air probably wasn’t helping. “Wh-What should I do?!”

“Keep doing what you’re doing. You’ll be fine, Parvis.”

“B-But—he’s— I can’t, Xephos, he’s too fast, please--”

“You’re doing fine.”

Another voice came through, somewhat garbled by wind and distance, authoritative and blithely coaxing. “Pah-ha-harvis~! Come heerreeee! You disobeyed meeeee! What did I say about trying to run away?”

Xephos could imagine Parv turning more pale than he already was.

“Xephos!! _Please!”_

“You’re doing fine,” he repeated, gaze on the portal shimmering before him. The other voice in the background made some comment and a sob came from the blood mage. “Do your job, Parvis. Keep him _busy. …_ **Awaken.”**

The sob became a pained cry that was disrupted by a wet ripping sound, immediately followed by crackling and hollow things snapping. The second voice swore. Something faintly tinged with what might have once been Parvis howled.

Xephos wove the void over the portal, sealing the last pathway out of that abandoned world engulfed in the cold of a forever winter. It had served well as a hiding place for him while he schemed against Ridgedog, and also the perfect place to squirrel Parvis away to. Now it served just as well as the blood mage’s tomb. Sadly it would not hold Ridge forever, but it would delay him long enough for Xephos to complete the rest of his plans to topple the demigod and free himself.


End file.
